The present invention relates to a waterproof structure that can be adopted in a wire leading portion for leading a wire from a housing.
In an electric vehicle or a hybrid vehicle, battery charging is performed using a charger connector that is composed of a feeder-side connector and a receiver-side connector (vehicle-side inlet).
Patent Document 1 discloses a technology related to a charger connector. According to this disclosed technology, a receiver-side connector is installed in a receiver accommodation chamber in a vehicle. Further, a lamp is also installed in the receiver-side accommodation chamber. The lamp is a component which constitutes an illumination unit, and is turned on or off when a cover of the receiver-side accommodation is opened or closed. The lamp is installed to facilitate an assembling/disassembling work of the feeder-side connector and the receiver-side connector at night.
According to the illumination unit of Patent Document 1, although it is not clear whether a wire is led from the illumination unit, it is preferable that a wire leading portion adopts a waterproof structure if a wire is led therefrom. Further, a great number of waterproof structures effectively adopted in wire leading portions have been proposed. On of them may be a technology disclosed in Patent Document 2.
Patent Document 1: JP-A-6-325834
Patent Document 2: JP-A-8-213097
According to a waterproof structure disclosed in Patent Document 2, a rubber cap, into which a wire is penetratingly inserted, and an inner surface of a housing are sealed. This waterproof structure has problems in that if internal pressure of the housing is changed, the rubber cap may move.
Since the rubber cap is not only to seal the wire but also to seal an opening that is formed on a rear side portion of the housing, the size of the rubber cap becomes larger, and in order to assemble such a large-sized rubber cap, it is necessary to press the rubber cap with strong force. Accordingly, the workability becomes degraded.
In the case of adopting the waterproof structure disclosed in Patent Document 2, for example, in an illumination unit, it is necessary to solve the above-described problems.